4/11/2005 @ 12:01AM

2005 Audi A8

Overview

High gas prices hurt the sales of SUVs, right?

Read the automotive headlines, and you’ll see that story repeated constantly. To a certain extent, it’s the truth. Sales of large SUVs that cost around $30,000 to $40,000, like
General Motors
‘
Chevrolet Suburban and
Ford
‘s
Expedition, are in near freefall; no matter how much cash is offered back, buyers don’t want to get near vehicles that drink so much gas.

But that’s not true for the more expensive models.

Even with gas prices at $2.50 a gallon or higher, luxury SUVs and crossovers are, far and away, better sellers than luxury sedans. Just look at these numbers, from the trade publication Automotive News, for sales of 11 leading crossovers and SUVs (figures are of U.S. sales only through February 2005).

That’s a total of 67,634 of these 11 luxury SUV and crossover models sold in the first two months of 2005 in the U.S.; none of these models is cheaper than about $35,000. Now compare those numbers to the ones in the following table of 12 leading luxury sedans (again, U.S. sales through February). Taken as a group, the cars listed here get far better fuel economy, handle more nimbly and safely (especially in an emergency situation), and in some cases even offer more passenger volume than the SUVs and crossovers listed above.

That’s a total of 46,728 of these 12 cars sold in January and February. That means nearly three of the luxury SUVs/crossovers listed above sold for every two of these luxury sedans. Take out the Town Car and DeVille (which are largely sold to fleets), and it’s two SUVs/crossovers sold for every sedan.

Sure, you might argue that some of these cars, like the 7 Series, S-Class and Audi A8 (the subject of this review), ring the register much more loudly than any vehicle on the SUV list, save the Porsche Cayenne. That’s true, but compare for a moment the $36,025 Lexus RX 330 to the $41,300 BMW 5 Series. The price is pretty close and both seat the same number of passengers (five), but the RX has a whole lot more cargo volume. You pay for the extra room at the pump, with a fuel economy of 18 miles per gallon in the city and 24 on the highway versus 19 mpg in the city and 28 on the highway for the 525i BMW.

In fact what’s really clear here is that people who spend from $35,000 to beyond $60,000 for a vehicle are going for crossovers and SUVs, not luxury cars. That’s despite the fact that flagship luxury sedans are far more technologically advanced than their SUV counterparts. Again, look at the charts, and you’ll see that the Cadillac Escalade ($53,850 to $70,175) far outsells the splendid new STS ($40,525 to $47,025) despite costing more, having a much worse fuel economy (about on par with the slow-selling Chevy Suburban) and being based on a fairly old GM truck platform.

If you’re planning to spend $70,000 on a vehicle, an alternative to the Escalade sits at the bottom of that list of sedans above. The $66,590 A8 didn’t make that list for being among the top sellers in the luxury sedan segment; it’s there because it’s the subject of this review. Besides, it’s quite remarkable that, in a 60-day window at the start of this year, three Porsche Cayennes and more than five Hummer H2s sold for each Audi A8. That’s a big difference in sales and begs the question: What do those vehicles have that the A8 doesn’t? You’ll have to keep reading to find out.

From The Driver’s Seat

Do the Hummer H2 or Porsche Cayenne have more passenger room than an Audi A8? The A8 has 114 cubic feet of interior volume; the Cayenne, which ranges in price from $41,000 to $89,000, has slightly less than 100 cubic feet; the H2, which stickers at $52,430, may or may not have more room. We can’t tell you for sure because the wily folks at GM don’t publish interior volume figures on their H2. Anecdotally, though, we can tell you that the cockpit of the H2 feels like a cave. The metal-to-glass ratio favors light-averse people or those brandishing M-16s. Meaning, even if it’s actually fairly roomy inside an H2 (and it’s not tremendously roomy in the backseat), it feels a bit tight.

Meanwhile, comparing the quality of the cabins is no contest. Yes, the Cayenne is sharp-looking inside, and more premium models look progressively swankier. And the H2 is properly butch, but hardly a tour de force of design. Sitting in the A8, on the other hand, is like having a corner table at the Four Seasons. Nothing this side of a Bentley Continental GT–Audi’s parent,
Volkswagen
, owns Bentley–has a cabin this beautiful.

And owning this car means that even before you climb aboard, it “knows” you’re nearby. As you approach the vehicle, don’t bother to pull the key fob from your pocket; just lift the door handle. The car will unlock, and even start, without you ever removing the fob. And this system is more goof-proof than some we’ve tried. For instance, on a few other systems out there you can accidentally walk away from the car without shutting down all of the electronics–potentially leading to a dead battery. Fail to shut all the systems down on the A8, and the car beeps at you and a screen on the dash will tell you to push the “engine off” button again to secure the car.

But we’re skipping ahead.

First, just admire the polished walnut interior (sycamore and birch are also options). Note the brushed aluminum brightwork at the steering wheel, the shift bezel, the door levers and even on each vent control. Eyeball the Valcona leather upholstery. This cabin has seats so body-conforming (with optional seat heaters all around, by the way) and supportive, you don’t want to get out when you arrive at your destination.

We could go on in this vein, but let’s cut to the chase: This car’s interior is styled richly, but not ostentatiously. The mood of the A8 cabin isn’t board-room stuffy, nor is it so hyperactively technical that you feel as if you should be driving in a lab coat.

True, there’s one flaw in the Audi math: The Multi Media Interface digital car control system that can be every bit as frustrating to operate as BMW’s iDrive. Here’s but one example. Say you spy a set of turns ahead and you want to firm up the splendid pneumatic suspension a tad (you can choose from four settings, from plush to very firm). First, touch a button labeled CAR on the center field of switches, which resides near the gear selector. Then turn the dial at the center of that field of switches while gazing at the LED screen at the top of the dash to see if you’re at the suspension setting you want.

With a little practice you could get that done in less than ten seconds. Unless of course the CAR setting had last been displaying one of its submenus, of which there are many. You might have to scroll backward to the suspension menu, by which point you’ll have either given up or already bombed through that set of turns you were relishing. It’s all too distracting.

Maybe all that technology is why people are buying crossovers instead? Nice try. Play with the suspension adjustments in the Cayenne for a while, and that conclusion will quickly be dispelled.

Speaking of suspensions–and engines–we’re simply smitten with the way the A8 performs. To pit this car against its hypothetical rivals, the H2 and Cayenne, is nearly laughable. The H2 takes about 11 seconds to get to 60 mph. The Audi’s splendid 335-hp V-8 can hustle this car to 60 mph in 6.3 seconds. The only Cayenne that’s faster than the Audi A8 is the Turbo; its 450-hp motor can carry the roughly 5,500-pound (depending on options) Porsche to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds.

That’s fast, but that Cayenne also only gets 13/18 city/highway mpg fuel economy and costs $89,300. The Audi gets a respectable 18/24 city/highway mpg, and we actually got about 26 mpg during a 140-mile trip. Do you really have to ask about the Hummer’s mileage? As for handling, the Porsche could probably give chase to the Audi, but not without some very careful attention paid to its higher center of gravity.

In fact, we had an opportunity to do our own emergency lane-change maneuver in the A8. Driving in a rainstorm on the interstate, a car slammed on its brakes in front of us. We quickly hit the Audi’s brakes, noticed that the car ahead was starting to skid, but saw that the adjacent lane was open and darted into it, then pounded the throttle to accelerate past what became a three-car pileup that rapidly spilled into two lanes. In any SUV or crossover such a maneuver would have been much more harrowing. In the all-wheel-drive A8 it was stunningly easy–if pulse-quickening.

Should You Buy This Car?

Many readers are surely thinking that this whole exercise of comparing a slow-selling luxury sedan to faster-selling SUVs is bizarre. Nobody, surely, shops between these specific vehicles, right?

However, if what you’re looking for is luxury, style and head-turning looks, we do actually think the trend today is to try to get those qualities from an SUV or crossover. What this reviewer fails to understand, however, is why Americans continue to hurt themselves in doing so. It’s not mileage we’re talking about. If you have more than $50,000 to spend, you’re surely not worried about paying $1,000 to $2,000 more in gasoline a year.

But life is short. And if you do have that kind of money, why not spend it wisely, on a car that can give you a better daily driving experience? For $50,000 or more you can have a car that offers something tremendous–the apotheosis of 100 years of automotive technology. Or you can have a truck with technology circa 1980, with a bunch of leather and foam packed inside to dim the noise of the roadway. No truck-based vehicle like a Navigator or Escalade will have the dynamic ride or emergency maneuverability of a great sports sedan, nor will it impart the sheer verve that such a car can offer.

The Audi A8 is the latter: a tonic brewed up to be a blast to drive, hugely spacious and magnificently opulent. This car rides like a dream, is a joy to inhabit, handles great and goes like a rocket. For those who’d buy an SUV instead, we just don’t get it.